1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for automatically controlling transmission and reception of information concerning network operations (hereinafter, referred to as `operation information`) in a distributed processing environment in which a plurality of computers are mutually connected via a communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a distributed processing environment over a relatively wide area is configured, for example, by connecting various types of computers set in respective business offices to a LAN (Local Area Network), and, further, by mutually connecting those LANs directly or via repeating installations through a wide-area communications network. Each network manager, allocated for a respective predetermined network area, performs operation management of the network area through a respective management-use device.
When operation information of respective network areas is reported between network managers, generally, an electronic mail system is used. Then, each network manager, responding to the contents of thus-received operation information, reports necessary information to users of the respective network area. Further, by using an electronic bulletin board (news) service system, operation information which has been reported between the respective network managers can be managed unitarily, and, also, can be provided for public reading.
When a trouble or problem is detected in such a communications network through a network monitoring system or the like, the network manager who manages the network area having the trouble or problem reports this information to the other network manager and network users via an electronic mail system or the like, similar to the case where operation information is reported.
In the related art, there is no system for controlling and managing operation information through the entire communications network which is configured as a distributed processing environment. Therefore, each network manager of a respective one of network area performs a determination concerning received operation information and determines how to deal with the received operation information. However, recently the size of such a communications network has grown, and, thereby, the amount of information which network managers deal with has increased. As a result, the network load borne by each network manager has increased, and, thus, problems occur which will now be described.
In almost all cases, operation information is transmitted and received through an electronic mail system. Each network manager may receive operation information concerning a network area which has no direct relevance to a particular network manager when the particular network area is included in the area for which the electric mail system is used. Each network manager determines whether or not received operation information is operation information concerning the network area relevant to a particular network manager. Further, each network manager determines, according to the contents of received operation information, whether or not the received operation information should be reported, and, also, to which destinations the received operation information should be reported. Then, the network manager manually distributes the received operation information to appropriate users within the network area managed by the network manager. Thus, a respective network manager determines how to deal with operation information received through an electronic mail system. In other words, such determinations are left to particular network managers. Therefore, personal feelings may influence such determinations, and, thereby, oversights, mistakes, and time losses may occur. Problematic situations may occur in which impartial dealing with operation information may not be ensured, necessary operation information may not be reported to users, timely information provision may not be ensured, and so forth.
With regard to distribution of operation information, generally speaking, destinations are previously determined by a sending side, and, a receiving side only receives sent information without selection. Therefore, a receiving side cannot previously know sources from which information is distributed, and, cannot control as to whether or not reception of unnecessary information is stopped.
In a case where unitary management of operation information using an electronic bulletin board service system or the like is performed, the order of receiving of operation information is not necessarily coincident with the order of sending the operation information because required transmission time of the operation information depends on lengths of transmission lines and other various network conditions. Therefore, if the contents of the electronic bulletin board are updated according to the order of receiving of operation information, time consistency may be lost, and, thereby, inconsistency in the contents may occur. Further, when a method such as use of an electronic bulletin board in which all information is brought together into a single table is used, if a user attempts to refer to only necessary data, a considerable amount of time is required for searching that table for the necessary data, and traffic of the network is unnecessarily increased because such a user has to access unnecessary data during the search.
Further, when a problem or trouble occurs in a communications network, it is possible through a network monitoring system to determine where the problem occurs, and, then, to immediately report this location to a respective network manager. However, other actually necessary information, such as a situation analysis, a problem or trouble restoration plan, a bypass route, restarting of operation when restoration has been achieved, and so forth, is produced and distributed manually. Therefore, such actually necessary information may not be distributed timely, and, thus, it may be difficult to achieve smooth network operation.